UN votes to make Palestine member
NEW YORK − Israel’s United Nations ambassador physically fed a copy of the U.N. charter into a shredder to illustrate what he said was the General Assembly’s disregard for the document as delegates voted to advance Palestinian membership to the world body.
The stunt came just before the General Assembly, in an emergency special session Friday, voted overwhelmingly for a resolution asking the Security Council to make Palestine, which has U.N. observer status, a full member.
Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab of the United Arab Emirates, representing a group of Arab states, had submitted the draft resolution asking the Security Council to “reconsider and support” the Palestinian Authorities bid for full membership.
Full membership can only be approved by the U.N. Security Council, where the U.S. holds one of five vetoes. Last month the U.S. vetoed a move at the Security Council to make Palestine a full U.N. member.
Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan, invoking the Holocaust, World War II and the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, ripped his colleagues for wanting to “advance the establishment of a Palestinian terror state led by the Hitler of our time.”
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour, speaking just before Erdan, deplored the death toll in Gaza and cited the anti-war protests at Columbia University as he implored the assembly to vote “Yes.” Erdan accused Mansour of shedding “crocodile tears,” noting that no Palestinian officials had denounced Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
“The UN, in a shameful violation of its own charter, will vote to grant the Palestinian Authority the rights and privileges reserved only for UN member states even though it doesn’t meet the criteria for statehood and failed to receive the recommendation of the Security Council,” Erdan told USA TODAY in
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“This is a reward for terrorism and will only strengthen Hamas and make peace impossible,” he said. “It is one of the most destructive resolutions ever presented in the UN made possible due to the antisemitism and political interests that are so prevalent at the UN.”
Abushahab, who called for a vote at 11 a.m., told the assembly, “Voting against this resolution would be a moral and legal abandonment.”
The resolution passed with delegates from 143 countries voting yes, while nine − including the U.S. − voted no, and 25 abstained.
“It remains the U.S. view that unilateral measures at the U.N. and on the ground will not advance this goal,” Nate Evans, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the U.N. said earlier Friday.
Defiant Netanyahu: ‘We will stand alone’
On Thursday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was strong enough to fight alone after President Joe Biden warned that U.S. arms shipments to the country could be stopped if he orders a full-scale invasion of Rafah in Gaza.
“If we need to stand alone, we will stand alone,” Netanyahu said in a video message ahead of Israel’s Independence Day next week. “I have said that if necessary − we will fight with our fingernails.”
In his message late Thursday night, Netanyahu looked back to Israel’s foundational 1948 war, when the new state was attacked by a coalition of Arab countries after it declared independence in the wake of a U.N. plan to partition the then-British Mandate into two states: one Jewish, one Arab.
“In the War of Independence 76 years ago, we were the few against the many. We did not have weapons. There was an arms embargo on Israel, but with great strength of spirit, heroism and unity among us − we were victorious,” Netanyahu said.
His government has vowed to enter Rafah to crush Hamas militants behind the Oct. 7 border attacks that triggered the Israel-Hamas war. Israel’s military says it has dismantled at least 18 of Hamas’ 24 battalions. However, it believes thousands of Hamas fighters are hiding in Rafah.
Humanitarian officials told USA TODAY aid shipments to Gaza have slowed to a trickle as Israeli troops battled fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the eastern part of Rafah and Israeli jets dropped bombs. Israel has ordered an estimated 100,000 residents − roughly the population of Burbank, California − to evacuate for their own safety.
Israel’s operation in Rafah has so far appeared to be limited in scope, but world leaders fear an even larger humanitarian crisis there. And even without a fullscale Rafah invasion, medical facilities in Gaza’s southernmost city have been overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, negotiations over reaching a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas have appeared to stall.
UN agency closes Jerusalem headquarters after arson
The main United Nations aid agency for Palestinians closed its headquarters in East Jerusalem after local Israeli residents set fire to areas at the edge of the sprawling compound on Thursday, the agency said.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNWRA, said in a post on the social media platform X that he had decided to close the compound until proper security was restored. He said Thursday’s incident was the second in less than a week.
“This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of the State of Israel as an occupying power to ensure that United Nations personnel and facilities are protected at all times,” he said.
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY; Reuters